Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok, right, and ICT Minister Lee Jong-ho enter a meeting room for a cabinet meeting at the Government Complex Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap

The Korean government plans to establish new digital protocols by revamping the copyright system for AI-generated content and addressing fake news produced by deepfakes, according to the Ministry of Science and ICT, Tuesday.

During a Cabinet meeting held in Seoul, Minister Lee Jong-ho announced 20 policy initiatives to tackle emerging challenges of the digital era, including eight key tasks.

This announcement of policy proposals is a follow-up action to the Digital Bill of Rights released by the government in September last year, which will, in turn, lay the groundwork for the establishment of a new digital paradigm.

The ICT ministry added that it plans to make tangible progress through public discussions and policy research on these initiatives and share them with the international community, including member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations.

"The plan to establish a new digital order is based on the Digital Bill of Rights, and the policies will be made through pan-government efforts so that people can actually solve the issues we face in the digital era," the minister said.

Among the eight key policy tasks, the government plans to reform by the end of this year the copyright system over content created by generative AI.

"The government will promptly revise the AI copyright system to bolster the development of the AI-based creative industry," the ministry said.

The government also intends to mandate the display of watermarks on AI-generated content to counter fake news generated by deepfake technology. It is actively working on enacting and amending relevant laws and plans to monitor election campaigns that utilize deepfakes through portal service and social media providers. If anomalies are detected, it will respond by promptly removing such content. It also promotes the development of technologies to detect and identify deepfakes and automate deletion requests.

Ensuring the stable implementation of telemedicine was also highlighted as a key task that the government will champion in the digital age. Although Korea amended the Medical Service Act in 2002 to permit remote medical activities among medical professionals, non-face-to-face medical treatment between doctors and patients is still prohibited.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the government temporarily permitted contact-free treatment and has been piloting it for medically vulnerable populations since June last year.

"The government will amend the Medical Service Act to establish a legal basis for telemedicine. In this process, we will communicate sufficiently with the medical community, patients and consumers," the government said.

The administration also outlined plans to foster a culture that respects the right to rest for workers who receive work-related messages outside of regular hours and to facilitate the removal of digital records that individuals wish to erase from their online presence.

To promote its initiatives on the global stage, the government will host a discussion session on the protection of digital rights at the AI Seoul Summit, taking place in Seoul on Tuesday and Wednesday. Additionally, the country will establish a cooperative framework on digital protocol with renowned universities and research institutes, including the University of Oxford and the University of British Columbia.